Why It's Not Too Soon to Hate LeBron James Again

LeBron James has been the story of the past week. It hasn't really been that the Miami Heat won an NBA championship, it's that LeBron James won his first NBA championship, and rightly so.

We (meaning fans, the media and any other guy who has an opinion on sports) put all the pressure on LeBron James, and for the most part he threw it back in our faces and went out and won a title anyway.

If it hasn't been said enough yet, let me say it again; congratulations LeBron, on your first NBA title. There may be more, but none will be as special as this first one. Oh, and this first one is still nowhere near as special as it would have been in Cleveland.

There isn't as much hate out there toward LeBron as there has been in the past few years as the backlash to the backlash stemming from The Decision has come on hard, but let's go ahead and get the backlash to the backlash's backlash going, shall we.

The NBA is made for hatred. That's not to say we can't respect LeBron's game, but we can hate the man all the same.

So, sitting in close proximity to the city he spurned, let's take a look at why we can get back to hating LeBron from the perspective of the northeast corner of Ohio.

The Decision

Remember this guy? The guy in the checked red-and-white shirt who sat haughtily as Jim Gray sat and lobbed softball questions at him from three feet away who tore out his home city's fans on live television? This is the guy that people loved to hate. LeBron James is no longer this guy.

However, even though he has changed, even though he has apologized, it's not easy to erase something like this from his past and from our memories.

LeBron tried to play the villain after this, but it wasn't who he was, so he stopped. However, that doesn't mean we have to no longer vilify him for one of the most self-centered abominations in NBA history.

He Shied Away from Immortality

Even if you didn't care that he was on television forgetting the fans that cheered him for the past seven years, you can't say that LeBron made the best decision from a basketball standpoint.

The past two years of LeBron James in New York would have been 10 times more dramatic, and a championship won in orange would have raised him to a level that only Yao Ming has seen internationally.

LeBron going to New York would have been theater in its purest form every night, yet he decided to go to Miami, which wasn't even the second-best choice.

He Spurned Another Chicago Dynasty

The Chicago Bulls in the 1990s was the most exciting thing in sports. It wasn't the Yankees' dynasty that was created near the end, it wasn't the Greatest Show on Turf and it wasn't the schadenfreude that everyone got from watching the Bills fail, it was the United Center going insane for Michael Jordan every night.

Chicago was on the verge of yet another time like that, and it was something that even Clevelanders could have appreciated from a basketball standpoint, at least more so than LeBron in Miami.

LeBron pairing with Derrick Rose would have been the best basketball team to come from whatever team LeBron chose, and it would have given us some of the loudest games ever heard with the fans in Chicago.

The Deck Was Stacked

It seems weird to say that Pat Riley and the Heat stacked the deck with LeBron, Wade and Bosh, but it's more true than it would have been if LeBron would have joined with any other superstar.

The situation was too perfect, with LeBron, Wade and Bosh all taking the exact same contract extension three years earlier so they could opt out and be free agents together. Whether there was any real evidence of tampering or not, it's impossible to look at that and think it was a completely legitimate situation.

Interestingly enough, the story following Miami's victory was all the troubles they had to overcome, rather than how easily they trod through the Eastern Conference and won a title just two years after coming together. It's funny how story lines like that die as soon as the team wins a title.

Two Quotes

Whenever there's a twinge of remorse for LeBron leaving Cleveland, there are words that ring in Cavs' fan's ears, and they won't be leaving for a long time:

"

“I got a goal, and it’s a huge goal, and that’s to bring an NBA championship here to Cleveland. And I won’t stop until I get it.”

"

That was LeBron James before the 2010 playoffs started. Three months later he was joining the Miami Heat and Cleveland was left with the same number of titles that they had before.

The second one is LeBron's own reasoning for not shaking hands with the Orlando Magic when they eliminated the Cavs from the playoffs back in 2009:

"

“If somebody beats you up, you’re not going to congratulate them. It doesn’t make sense for me to go over and shake somebody’s hand.”

"

If he wasn't ready to congratulate a team for beating him, I don't think I'm ready to like him for beating someone else.

Hate to Counter-Balance the Love

There are people out and about in Ohio, and all over the country for that matter, who will wear a LeBron James Cavs jersey still to this day, and it's something that drives me bonkers. I'll ask, "So are you a Cavs fan?" "No, I'm a LeBron James fan," is almost always the response.

That's just not a concept I can come to comprehend. It doesn't make any sense to me.

The guys who root for the name on the front of the shirt need to make their voices heard just as loud as the guys who root for the name on the back of the shirt.

Hating Makes the Game More Interesting

I'll never hate LeBron James as vehemently as I did in the days following The Decision, that's just not possible. Heck, I found the goodness in my heart to even be happy for him for a few seconds after the Heat won the title, but that wasn't a feeling that was stomach-able for more than about a minute.

What remains now is a fun little game of cat-and-mouse.

The NBA is more fun when players are polarizing. Sure, it was great in the days of Michael Jordan when everyone who wasn't a die-hard Knicks, Jazz, Rockets, Magic, Pacers or Cavs fan at least liked Jordan, if not loved him.

However, when you have a single player at the top of the league who allows for as many opinions as LeBron James, there's just something more interesting about it.

Sure, LeBron might have won some respect in the past month, but one title isn't going to win over haters. Just ask Kobe Bryant.

If you are one of those twitterers, you can follow me @JDorsey33.